Devs speak: How PS5 console’s ultra-high speed SSD and Tempest 3D AudioTech engine will enhance the future of gaming

With PlayStation 5, our goal is to put the player at the heart of the gaming experience. From the DualSense wireless controller’s adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, to the ultra-high speed SSD, to the immersion felt with Tempest 3D AudioTech engine, we want players to lose themselves in every PS5 game.

To provide in-game examples of these benefits, we asked developers around the world to share their thoughts on how the PS5 console’s ultra-high speed SSD and Tempest 3D AudioTech engine will shape the future of gaming. You can see some of the games that will leverage these features in our latest video:

Read on, and leave your comments below!

“Beyond near-instant loading and fast-travel, the SSD and its speed allow us to more quickly load and display more detailed assets. This should lead to the city looking better than ever, and this is just the beginning for our team unlocking those possibilities. It’s a fundamental change that we can’t wait to take more advantage of in the years to come.”— Brian Horton // Creative Director, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

“As developers [of Demon’s Souls], we are already changing the way we think about the SSD. We see it not just as storage but also memory, utilizing the speed of the SSD to load data at blistering speeds, bringing you straight back into the action to avenge your many deaths.”— Gavin Moore // Creative Director, SIE Japan Studio

“Hitman 3 pushes you to explore and experiment in huge sandbox locations – and being able to save/load frequently is key to that. The blitz-fast load times we are seeing on the PS5 console encourages [player] experimentation more than ever.”— Mattias Engström // Game Director, Hitman 3

“The SSD is a gamechanger, I think as this generation matures we will see some amazing innovation in streaming and open-world game design.”— Neil Hill // Lead Programmer, Far Cry 6

“A bit further into the next generation I’m expecting we’ll start seeing developers make more use of the not-so-obvious benefits of the SSD. This is what excites me the most! What does it mean for developers when everything can be loaded from the disk that fast? Will we even need the concept of “levels” anymore?…. The possibilities for this tech are exciting for me as a developer, and exhilarating for me as a gamer.”— Ari Arnbjörnsson // Lead Programmer, Returnal

“Hopefully players were able to see the new extended gameplay demo we recently revealed for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.The SSD and custom I/O architecture around it allows us to send players across dimensions with near-instant speed. It fundamentally changes the rules and allows us to think about ideas and game designs that are only possible on PS5.”– Marcus Smith // Creative Director, Insomniac Games

Tempest 3D AudioTech Engine

PS5’s Tempest 3D AudioTech engine is designed to provide highly accurate audio positioning, which could spell a major leap forward for gaming immersion. Developers across the globe are already putting the Tempest 3D AudioTech engine to good use, and below, they’re sharing some of their plans (and hopes) for the feature:

“3D Audio is exciting because it can create a more convincing and accurate soundscape for players, and a stronger sense of place.… in a fast-paced action game with lots of verticality like Returnal, it can also help with the player’s situational awareness, and make it more intuitive for players to pinpoint the locations of nearby enemies or incoming projectiles in the heat of combat.”— Harry Krueger //  Game Director, Returnal

“The ability to layer the music even more deeply with dozens of different states reacting to areas and enemy levels make for an environment that’s even more lush and mesmerizing. The players can use these cues to prepare accordingly in the hopes that they might live another day.”— Julian Maroda // Creative Director and CEO, Norsfell

“Now with the PS5 console’s Tempest 3D AudioTech sound engine we’ll be able to play sounds in such a way that players will be able to locate the machines around them with greater ease, which is great for situations in which you find yourself surrounded or just want to sneak on machines.”— Mathijs de Jonge // Game Director, Guerrilla

“Audio is a key feature to really push the next-gen experience with PS5. It’s almost as if 3D Audiotech was made specifically with horror games in mind. It used to be that in order to get that spatial audio, players would have to invest a lot of their own time and money. Now, just putting on a headset, they can get a full 3D audio experience.”— Jun Takeuchi // Executive Producer for Resident Evil Village

“Our game worlds have been 3D for generations now, but for audio we typically have been limited to 2D surround sound. When Iron Man is destroying a turret positioned above you, or Hulk roars as he takes on the enemies below you, you want to hear the sound coming from those directions. We can just take the actual positions of the audio and ensure we get them to the PS5 3D Audiotech engine and significantly improve your sense of being in the world. And all that is just with your headphones, without needing complex surround stereo systems.”— Jurjen Katsman // Studio Head at Nixxes, developers for Marvel’s Avengers

For more on the DualSense wireless controller’s native features, check out this prior post.